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CATALOGUE 
OF AN EXHIBITION OF 


ETCHINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS 
BY 


J.- L. FORAIN 


MAY 4TH TO MAY 28TH, 1926 


M. KNOEDLER & COMPANY 
14 EAST FIFTY-SEVENTH STREET 
NEW YORK CITY 


J.-L. FORAIN 


“*Forarn’s etched line is like that of no other artist. On first making its 
acquaintance, one feels the shock of strangeness and surprise which is 
always caused by the first contact with an important innovation. It is so 
personal to the artist that it can never ‘“‘make a school’’; such attempts 
at imitating it as have hitherto been made are deplorable failures. The 
French master uses a pure, sharp line, keen and cleanly bitten, which can 
give the finest possible contour when it suits his purpose, but is often so 
complicated by twists and zigzags, crossings and tangles, that it seems 
almost a miracle that any recognizable form should emerge out of 
apparent chaos. But it does. These networks and zigzags are not so 
casual as the novice may think them. They are the work of a master 
hand, very sure of the effect it intends to produce, however unusual or 
even eccentric we may think the means employed. They somehow pro- 
duce the effect of mass, roundness and solidity where a certain amount 
of shading is required, while in very lightly sketched subjects such as 
Femme nue, assise sur son lit, de face (G. 42), or Le Repos du Modele, 2e 
planche (G. 57), the artist relies much more upon contour, and the 
modelling is obtained by means which appears almost miraculous, the 
white spaces producing their full effect by being exactly proportioned to 
the confining lines. It must at once be said that, as a rule, Forain’s 
technique can only be seen at its very best in his first states. His finest 
inventions are matured in his brain and spring to life complete and 
perfect. He rarely has the power of improving upon the first idea by 
subsequent refinements and alterations. 

The printing of the plates is of almost uniform excellence, though it 
varies very much according to the special requirements of the subject. 
To a large extent the plate is clean-wiped; sometimes a certain amount 
of tone is left over the whole; but the artist scarcely ever resorts to the 
trick of leaving ink on the surface in certain places. The impressions, 


oe 


rich in burr, of such a plate as L’ Avocat parlant au préivenu (G. 54) are 
superb. The colour of the ink used is very often bistre, pale or of a 
decidedly reddish tint, also deep brown, and black, or blue-black. The 
paper used is generally Van Gelder, in large sheets, giving an ample 
margin to the plate; occasionally old paper has been used, and also 
Japan. As to the number of impressions, there is no fixed rule or even 
habit, except that for some time the artist made a practice of having 
twenty-five copies of many of his plates printed by a professional printer 
after taking a few épreuves d’essai himself. The number issued, however, 
since he returned to the practice of printing his own plates, is often much 
smaller than twenty-five.”’ 
CampBELL Dopeson: The Etchings of Jean-Louis Forain 
(The Print-Collector’s Quarterly: Vol. VIII, No. I, pp. 2-36) 


a 


CATALOGUE 
ETCHINGS 


t La TRAITE DES BLANCHES 
Guérin26 Only State 


The subject was drawn upon the plate about 1886, but Forain did 
not bite it in until 1909, when an edition of 25 proofs was printed 
upon Holland paper. 


2 Les coutorrs pu Patais 
Guérin 30 
Second State: In the First State two or three proofs only were 
printed; in the Second State ‘‘un petit nombre d’épreuves.”’ 


3 T&morns A L’ AUDIENCE (First Plate) 

Guérin 32 
Trial proof: printed in sanguine 
Collection: Alfred Beurdeley 

‘*Forain has always been, like Daumier, keenly interested in the 
law courts and those who frequent them, whether habitually in 
the exercise of their profession or on the rarer occasions when 
they appear there as parties to a suit or in the least enviable rdle, 
that of prisoner in the dock. We shall find that quite a number of 
his etchings bear such titles as, L’Avocat parlant au prévenu, 
Témoins & lV’ audience, Avocat compulsant un dossier, La Sortie de 
V’ audience. He dwells in most of these on the contrast between 
the helplessness of the widows and orphans or of some specimen 
of (in one sense or another) abandoned womankind, and the 
keen, hawk-like bearing of the lawyer whom their misfortunes 
provide with his daily bread. For utter tragedy nothing in his 
work is pom atable to the large early plate, Félle-Mere (G. 36). 

CampsELL DopGson 


4 T&MOINs A L’ AUDIENCE (Second Plate) 
Guérin 33 
Third State: Proof No. 2 of 25 impressions 


5] 


5 Danseuse ET Maitre p' HOTEL 
Guérin 34 
Only State: Soft-ground etching and aquatint 


6 Firtz-Meére (First Plate) 
Guérin 36 
Only State: Proof No. 10 of 25 impressions 
Collection: Max Biach 


‘For utter tragedy nothing in his work is comparable to the large 
early plate, Fille-Mere (G. 36).”’ 


7 Firte-Mére (Second Plate) 
Guérin 37 
First State 
Etching and aquatint. Three proofs only were printed of this fine 
plate. 


8 Le Gros CIGARE 
Guérin 38 
Only State: Soft-ground etching on zinc. 


‘*Le gros Cigare is an admirable satire on the vulgar sensualist who 
plays a much larger part in Forain’s lithographs and cartoons 
than in the etchings.”’ CamPpBELL DopGsoNn 


9 Témoins A L’auDIENCE (Third Plate) 
Guérin 4o 
Only State: Proof No. 4 of 25 impressions 
Collection: Max Biach 


10 BAIGNOIRE AU THEATRE 
Guérin 41 
Second State: The plate aquatinted 
Twelve impressions 
[6] 


11 FEMME NUE, ASSISE SUR SON LIT, DE FACE 

Guérin 42 
Only State: Twenty-five impressions 

‘Another group of subjects consists of studies of the nude model, 
or of single figures not taking part in any definite action. The 
etching of a girl sitting on her bed (G. 42), in its frank simplicity 
and perfectly direct and successful technical execution, is one of 
the finest things in Forain’s cewovre.”’ CaMPBELL DopGson 


12 Le RETOUR DE L’ ENFANT PRODIGUE (Third Plate) 

Guérin 46 
Second State: Twenty-five impressions 

“It must have come as a surprise to many of M. Forain’s admirers, 
though not to his friends, to find him in 1909 abandoning this 
detached attitude towards religion, and suddenly—a very Saul 
among the prophets—choosing for the subjects of the most won- 
derful group of his etchings some of the most touching incidents 
in the Gospel story... . . There is something more than art, 
something beyond science in these etchings; the simple test of 
the effect that they produce on unsophisticated people, believers 
in Christianity but without any definite artistic faith, suffices to 
prove it.”’ CaMPpBELL DopGsoN 


13, Le Bon SaMaARITAIN 
Guérin 49 
Third State 


14 Le PRévENu ET L ENFANT 
Guérin 52 
Third State 
Collection: Max Biach 


**Le Prévenu et l enfant (G. 52), in which a tiny, chubby boy, lifted 
in his mother’s arms, recognizes his father in the dock and moves 
his little hand and foot in greeting, affords an agreeable con- 
trast to the rather grim contents of most of these studies of the 
tribunal. It is a case where, if the first state appears perfect in 


fA 


its presentment of all the essentials of the scene, yet the nu- 
merous additions made in the final state are quite harmonious 
and complete the picture successfully.’” Camppett Dopcson 


15 L’AvocaT PARLANT AU PREVENU (Second Plate) 
Guérin 55 
Second State: Proof No. 13 of twenty-five impressions 


16 Lz repos pu Moves (First Plate) 
Guérin 56 
First State 


17 Le Catvarre (First Plate) 
Guérin 58 
Second State 


At a later period Forain painted a picture of the same subject, 
but in reverse. The painting was reproduced in Figaro Illustré, 
1902, in the issue devoted to Forain and his work. 


‘Then follows another of Forain’s most original and beautiful 
plates, Le Calvaire (1909), which exists in two versions (G. 58, 
59), differing little from one another except that in the first the 
sky is full of clouds, in the second clear. Both plates are large 
and spacious; Forain is fond of letting in plenty of air and light 
and giving his people room to move about in. The subject is, I 
think, without a precedent in religious art. There are no crosses; 
the only trace of the tragedy just enacted is the ladder held erect 
by the group of workmen on the right, who stand with heads 
bent in sympathetic reverence and sorrow while the Mater Do- 
lorosa, bowed with grief, is led away from the scene by two of 
her nearest and dearest. All our sympathies now are with her; 
the body of her Son, by whose cross she has watched so long, has 
been taken from her to the tomb. The men are just workmen of 
modern France; anything like a historical reconstruction of the 
scene with Oriental costumes, 4 la Tissot, would be as foreign 
to the master’s way of thinking as the classical drapery of Le 

Sueur or Le Brun.”’ CaMPBELL DopGson 


[8] 


18 Lz Catvatrre (Second Plate) 
Guérin 59 
First State 
Collection: Max Biach 


19 La RouTE D’Emmaus 
Guérin 60 
Second State, of three 

“Then follows quite a long series of etchings dealing with the 
journey to Emmatis and the supper with the two fellow- 
travellers, a favourite subject with Rembrandt. After theisolated 
Route d’ Emmatis (G. 60), of March, 1909, eleven plates (G. 92- 
102) follow in quick succession between December, 1909, and 
March 1910, while the two versions of the subject that in his- 
torical order come last, Apres l’ Apparition (G. 81, 82), occupy an 
intermediate place, dating from November, 1909.”’ 
CampBELL DoDGson 


20 A La TABLE DE jeu (First Plate) 
Guérin 71 
Third State 


21 A LA TABLE DE JEU (Second Plate) 
Guérin 72 
First State: A few proofs only printed 


22 La MADONE ET LES ENFANTS 
Guérin 73 
First State: Fifteen impressions 


‘The order in which I like to look at these New Testament etchings 
is that of the sacred narrative itself, taking a little license in the 
placing of the first La Madone et les Enfants (9.73), where the 
Holy Child, on His mother’s knee, bends forward to greet a 
group of three delightfully natural modern French children.”’ 

CampBELL DopGson 
LoJ 


23 PAYsAGE DES ENVIRONS DE VERSAILLES 
Guérin 75 
First State 
Collection: Alfred Beurdeley 


24 FEMME NUE, A PLAT VENTRE SUR SON LIT 
Guérin 76 
Third State: the plate enriched with dry-point 


25 AVOCAT COMPULSANT UN DOSSIER 
Guérin 77 
Third State: the shadows strengthened 


26 Lz repos pu Mopete (Third Plate) 
Guérin 83 
First State 


27 FoRAIN AU BERET 
Guérin 87 
First State 


"Forain au Béret (G. 87) is a dry-point, full of character, but some- 
what tantalizing in its incompleteness.’’ CamppetLt DopGson 


28 La RENCONTRE SOUS LA VOUTE (First Plate) 
Guérin 100 
First State 
Collection: Max Biach 


‘In several plates, varying between an upright and an oblong 
shape, called La Rencontre sous la vote, we see the meeting of 
Christ with the two men whom He engages in conversation; the 
background of the scene is a charming little French village street, 
very lightly etched.”’ CampBELL DoDGsoNn 


[ 10 | 


29 EvANOUISSEMENT A L’ AUDIENCE 
Guérin 106 
First State 


30 Le Curist porTANT sa Crorx (First Plate) 
Guérin 107 
First State 


‘‘Then come the various versions of the Bearing of the Cross (G. 107- 
110), two in which a burly soldier pushes back the inquisitive 
mob, and two—one of them a small and beautiful dry-point—in 
which the satirical motive occurs of a beggar holding out his 
hat to Christ as He passes with His burden.”’ 

CamMpBELL DopGson 


31 Pera (First Plate) 
Guérin 117 
Second State 


‘*He has not attempted as yet the great subject of the Crucifixion 
of our Lord, but he shows us in three very moving plates the 
Pieta or Lamentation beneath the Cross. In the first and second, 
a dry-point and an etching (G. 117, 118), the cross itself is seen; 
in the third there is nothing but the group, slightly varied, of 
four figures, including the dead Saviour. In all of them occur the 
quite novel and beautiful motive of the mother of our Lord 
bathing her Son’s brow with a sponge dipped in a basin. The 
austere figure of the Virgin, the face, still eloquent of suffering, 
of the dead Christ, and the impressive unity and balance of the 
whole group, are worthy of one of the great Italians of the 
quattrocento.’’ CaMPBELL DopGsoNn 


32 La rouTE D’Emmaiis (Second Plate) 
First State 


33 Le DEPART DE L’ENFANT PRODIGUE (Oblong Plate) 
Third State 
Collection: Alfred Beurdeley 


bard: 


34 PorTRAIT DE L ARTISTE, REGARDANT UNE PLANCHE 
Second State 


35 PoRTRAIT DE L ARTISTE, AU CHAPEAU BLANC 


36 FEMME METTANT SON BAS 
Second State 


37 La Miracutéz A Lourpss (First Plate) 
First State 


‘*La Miraculée is a subject that has been twice etched. In the first, 
and better, version the woman who has risen from her stretcher 
and flung down the crutch that she needs no longer, has her 
hands clasped upon her bosom; she stands up very rigid, and her 
face has the tense, hysterical look of a woman who is going 
through an experience which in fervent belief she attributes to a 
supernatural cause. There is a sense of excited movement in all 
the surrounding figures, and in the slight suggestion of a crowd 
of pilgrims following a processional banner in the background.”’ 

CampBELL DopGson 


38 La Mrracurée A Lourpss (Second Plate) 
Second State 


‘“The second etching, in which the heroine holds out her arms at 
her sides, is fine also, but the chief figure interests us less, though 
the subordinates are drawn with much more detail and are full 
of character and animation.’’ CAMPBELL DopGson 


39 La Communion pes Marapes A LourpEs 
Dry-point 
First State 
Collection: Marcel Guérin 


[12] 


“Another group of etchings of the utmost interest dates from 
1912. It deals with a series of incidents in the life of pilgrims to 
Lourdes, which seem to have made a great impression on the 
master, who returned to this subject again in a very large and 
striking lithograph which served as an affiche for the Eucharistic 
Congress held at Lourdes in July, 1914, immediately before the 
War. 

“There are at least nine, possibly more, of these Lourdes etchings, 
which include some of Forain’s finest plates.”’ 

CAMPBELL DopGson 


40 Ls BRANCARDIERS, LouRDES 
First State 
Collection: Alfred Beurdeley 


“It is eight or nine years since the Lourdes set was etched, and 
though a few lithographs have appeared in the meantime, of 
which Le Tremplin (two versions) is the most notable, I believe 
that M. Forain has not definitely published any more etchings. 
He has etched, but printed only in small numbers, a few of the 
wonderful compositions that appeared during the war in the 
pages, first of L’Opinion, then of Le Figaro. La Borne Verdun), in 
two dry-point versions, large and small, Les Notables, Le Retour 
au Foyer, and Soldat qui sort de la tranchée, were included, in a few 
trial proofs, in the London exhibition of 1920.”’ 

CampBELL DopGsoNn 


41 Les NoraBizs 
Only State 


42 Le RETOUR AU FOYER 
First State 


43, SOLDAT QUI SORT DE LA TRANCHEE 
First State 


era] 


LITHOGRAPHS 


‘In THE period which witnessed the production of these many series of 
satirical cartoons, Forain was already actively engaged in one of the two 
branches of original graphic art in which he excels, lithography. It is not 
very clear when he actually began to use the' process, and none of the litho- 
graphs are dated, but I believe I shall not be very wide of the mark if I 
say a little earlier than 1890. Down to the date (1910) of the appearance 
of M. Marcel Guérin’s illustrated catalogue, ‘J-. L. Forain Lithographe,’ 
89 lithographs, including five posters, had been recorded, and some few 
rarities, undescribed, have since been discovered. The finest existing 
collections, in all probability, of these much prized lithographs is that 
in the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett, brought together with loving care 
and perseverance by Max Lehrs, who discerned at a very early stage 
their unusual excellence and had the foresight to acquire a large collec- 
tion before the prices had made such an acquisition impossible. So many 
of the lithographs exist only in a few trial proofs that the number of 
collections that are at all extensive is very limited, and these are chiefly 
in private ownership in Paris.”’ CAMPBELL DoDGsSON 


44 CHEZ L’HUISSIER 
Guérin 3 
Only State. Proof No. 44 of fifty impressions 
Collection: Max Biach 


45 UNE SalsIz 
Guérin 4 
Only State. Proof No. 4 of ten impressions 
Collection: Max Biach 


This lithograph was reproduced in Figaro Illustré, in 1902, in the 
special issue devoted to Forain and his work. 


46 Rue Larritte 
Guérin 6 
Only State. Proof No. 14 of fifty impressions 


This lithograph was reproduced in Figaro Illustré, in 1902, in the 
special issue devoted to Forain and his work. The picture dealer 
is a portrait of M. Salvador Mayer. 


[ 14 ] 


47 La LoGE DE La DANSEUSE (Second Plate) 
Guérin 20 
First State ‘“Trés rare’’ 
Collection: Marcel Guérin 


48 La FricTION AU GANT DE CRIN 
Guérin 21 
Lithotint 
Collection: Max Biach 


49 TRoIs DESSINS SUR UNE FEUILLE 
Guérin 24 
Third State 
Collection: Alfred Beurdeley 


50 FEMME A SA TOILETTE AVEC SA FEMME DE CHAMBRE 
(First Plate: oblong) 
Guérin 30 
First State: about fifteen impressions 
Collection: Max Biach 


51 En Grice 
Guérin 60 
Only State 


Done for an album of prints by various artists, which M. Vollard 
planned to publish, but which never was issued. 


52 DANSEUSE ACCOTEE CONTRE UN PORTANT (AVEC DES 
FIGURANTS ) 
Guérin 65 
Only State. 


Proof No. 4 of six impressions (tiré a six epreuves forain No. 4, in 
the autograph of the artist) 


Collection: Alfred Beurdeley 


Eady 


53 Le CurisT DEPOUILLE DE Ses VETEMENTS 
No. 14 of twenty-five impressions | 


54 Le TRempxin (M. Cartiaux) 


First Plate 


“It is eight or nine years since the Lourdes set was etched. . . . 
A few lithographs have appeared in the meantime, of which 
Le Tremplin (two versions) is the most notable.”’ 
CaMPBELL DopGson 
5§ Merz: Le Bocuse Exputsé 
No. 22 of forty-five impressions 


56 Merz: Le Batser au Drargzau 
No. 22 of forty-five impressions 


57 AVOCAT POURCHASSE 
No. 8 of forty impressions 


58 CoNnsEIL JURIDIQUE 
No. 28 of forty impressions 


59 SUSPENSION D’ AUDIENCE 
No. 17 of forty impressions 


60 GrouPE DE JovEuRs A LA TABLE DE JEU 
No. 22 of forty impressions 


61 Le Decaveé 
No. 9 of forty impressions 


62 SALLE DE JEU 
No. 21 of forty impressions 


[ 16 ] 


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